Here at Five Songs, we never stop working for you, the tiny handful of people who put up with this, day in and day out. So, today, we’re going the extra 20% with six songs! Such generosity!

Johnny Too Bad And The Strikeouts, “Nineteen Fifty Two”

If you look at that band name and say to yourself “that sounds like a fourth-tier third-wave band”, congratulations! You’ve probably consumed too much Five Songs!

Without noticing, I passed six moths of doing this stuff. Nice. Here’s today’s tunes.

Unsteady, “Me”

Another track from Unsteady’s fantastic Double or Nothing, this sarcastic song contains the genius line “I’m a blessed martyr to the church inside my head”, which I think about a lot. Anyway, the ratio of “how much I like this album” to “how much the rest of the world has heard of this album” is just about as high as it gets on this record.

Today’s music.

La Luz, “I’ll Be True”

Seattle band that plays a combination of 60’s pop, surf, and a bit of garage rock. Everything is super reverbed out, is what I’m saying. It’s a lot of fun! I like the second album, Weirdo Shrine, the best of the two studio records.

Seaweed, “Turnout”

Another local band! Seaweed were out of Tacoma, WA, and were active on Sub Pop during the grunge explosion. Despite that, they were always more of a punk band than a grunge band, and consequently kind of got lost in the shuffle. The middle couple albums, Weak and Four, were excellent, and are worth digging up to try out.

I’m delighted by this set today.

The Popgun Seven, “The Waiting Feeling’s Fine”

As before, this is truly a strange artifact in the ol’ collection. Once again, it’s a pretty pleasant listen, and kind of makes me wish that there was more of this around.

Butter 08, “Shut Up”

It’s obscure day here at Five Songs! Well, as I mentioned last time, if Russell Simins is involved, I’m there. I mean, come on, listen to this shit! Groovy as hell.

Today’s selections.

J Church, “Sweet and Sour Plums”

WRCT, the campus radio station at Carnegie Mellon, used to get tons of records from just about every label. Primarily, that was because we actually would play stuff from smaller labels, having largely rejected the idea of “college rock” as well as “coherence” and “professionalism”. From that wave of incoming stuff, somebody on the staff would listen to everything and write a little note on an index card to stick to it. You’d suggest which songs might make sense to play on the air, which songs you should avoid unless you were in the “safe harbor” (in other words, which ones had swearing), if a record was hopeless, whatever. If you really liked a record, you’d put it in the booth with the other notable new releases.

Every now and again, I catch myself thinking, “geez, this playlist really sounds like something I’d love!” And then I think, come ON brain, what are you thinking? But my brain has already moved on. Well, anyway, today’s playlist is pretty indie rock-y. And Haggard-y, I suppose.

The Wedding Present, “Big Boots”

I’ve always really liked the Wedding Present’s slower numbers. The contrast with the usual hyperactive pop really centers David Gedge’s lonely, weary lyrics. And sometimes you want that extra bummer, you know? This comes from Saturnalia, the last album from their first incarnation, before Gedge recorded with Colorama for a while. It’s an excellent album, as is everything that that version of the band put out.

Today is not the most coherent set.

Wu-Tang Clan, “The M.G.M.”

A repeat! Six songs today, people!

Gorguts, “Nostalgia”

This comes from Obscura, a landmark album in death metal where Gorguts explored how dissonant and downright strange they could make a metal album. This kind of unhinged musical exploration is where I’ve always found my favorites in death metal, and this kind of spastic noise really has as much in common with the avant garde as it does with traditional metal. This kind of thing can take a bit to absorb, as it’s disorienting to listen to at first, but I find it all really interesting.

Music!

Raekwon, “Guillotine (Swordz)”

Now we’re talkin’. After a couple songs from his followup, we have a cut from Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, which is on the short list for the finest Wu-related albums released. Really, what you’ve got here is basically just a great Wu-Tang track, as you’ve got several of the Wu MCs on here. Most of this album has Ghostface Killah on it, which is one of the things that makes it so strong. Really, I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Some titans of the rock underground today! I really like this set a lot. Shame it didn’t go one more song, Einstürzende Neubauten popped up next with “Vanadium-I-Ching”, which would have been a fun addition to the list. Oh well, can’t go changing the rules any time I like!

Pixies, “Alec Eiffel”

Here, we’re getting a track from the last pre-breakup Pixies album, Trompe Le Monde. At the time, I was pretty disappointed in Bossanova, for whatever reason, but really liked this one. At this remove, it’s not clear what my beef was with Bossanova and it’s pretty similar to Trompe. While both records are off from the peak of their first records, they’re still both excellent and well worth having.

I have a new sweatshirt! I’m sort of really excited for it. Also, I come bearing music.

Fishbone, “End The Reign”

Fishbone played a mix of funk, punk, and metal, coming out of the same Los Angeles scene that birthed the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And for a while, until the Chili Peppers became one of the biggest bands on the planet, you really couldn’t mention one band without mentioning the other. I was never really that big into either of them, truthfully, although I gave them both a try. Anyway, this comes from Give A Monkey A Brain And He’ll Swear He’s The Center Of The Universe, an album that skews more towards the metal end of Fishbone’s sound (as you can hear).